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Album Review: Paul Dempsey – Strange Loop

There are two kinds of people: Paul Dempsey fans and those who haven’t yet heard Strange Loop.

Dempsey doesn’t make music for the masses – he’s not interested in the latest trends or feeding the media beast.

Perhaps that’s why he’s been in no hurry to release his second solo album, which has been seven years in the making.

His last solo effort Everything is True introduced us to Dempsey sans Something for Kate – and was well received by fans and critics.

Recorded at Wilco’s The Loft studio in Chicago, Strange Loop sees the continuation of Dempsey’s solo journey with an intriguing 11-song collection that refuses to bow to songwriting convention.

The title – inspired by the book I am a Strange Loop by American scientist Douglas Hofstadter – is a nod to Dempsey’s current concern with the way the ‘self’ emerges from the physical matter of which we’re made.

Throughout Strange Loop, Dempsey – a keen observer of science and a student of astrophysics – deftly uses dark humour and witty wordplay to connect the abstract and the familiar.

Seven-and-a-half minute opener The True Sea contrasts the enormity of the physical universe against the bond between two people (‘She makes the ocean seem like a drop in the ocean’).

The track moves with urgency and optimism, and unlike other lengthy ‘scene-setters’ it doesn’t drag. Every second of audio seems necessary.

Title track Strange Loop dwells on the impossibility of ever fully understanding another person – and what terrifying things we’d discover if we ever managed it:

Tell me baby what’s so good about being understood / I would be terrified if I could read your mind / And the real me you couldn’t even identify

With a laid-back intro of acoustic guitar and organ, it’s about as playful as a Paul Dempsey creation gets – and it’s a solid toe-tapper of a tune.